During our honeymoon in 2008 I walked into the supermarket nearest to our campground on the first morning in/on Corsica. At the check-out there were some bottles of Altore whisky. A Corsican brand of two different varieties with a white and a black label. Normally I don’t think I would have given them any thought, but since they were near the register I had to wait in line exactly there.

For some reason, if that happens, the sight of those bottles starts wearing down my resistance and after five minutes I walked out of the shop with croissants, nutella and a bottle of whisky. Not sure which one because the next morning I bought the other. At about € 25 I couldn’t really deny myself this part of exploratory tasting, right?

This one has a ‘wine’ finish in some way. Technically it was finished on a cask that previously held Cap Corse, which is a local fortified wine with a very rich fruity character. Delicious stuff, it is. It was distilled in the Scottish Highlands and bottled in Corsica after finishing. The water used to bring it down to 40% runs in a canal through the region of Patrimonio.

Sniff:
Young and grainy but that is rather well hidden behind a layer of soft and sweet orange and wine. A combination of port and sangria. Not very deep and fairly flat at that, but a very nice summery scent.

Sip:
The palate is sweet and light with just a touch of pepper. A bit more spicy than the nose made me expect, but the summery sweet orange flavour. It really is a Cap Corse and whisky blend. The sweet orange also gives off a tad of bitterness.

Swallow:
The grains are back in town. The fruitiness rules over the slight bitter note again. Not much else happens.

While this is by no means a great dram, it is a delicious summertime dram and works great as an aperitif when eating outside, just when the evening sets in. Also, when drinking something you don’t want to think about too much after work on a random November day, it works fine.

Oh, by the way, mostly you find an 8 year old version of this online, but mine was from before that time I guess. No age statement found on this bottle!

Altore whisky, Reserve Moresca, 40%, available at random shops and shouldn’t set you back too much.